Method of making shortened food products.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

' THOMAS FRANCIS TIERNEY, OF WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOB TO ECONOMY FOOD PRODUCTS COMPANY, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, A COR- PORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF MAKING- SHORTENED FOOD PRODUCTS.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS F. TIERNEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Watertowmcounty of Middlesex, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Shortened Food Products, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to food products and particularly to shortened food products and the method of making the same' The particular class of products to which my invention especially applies is that in which the material produced is in a dry or powdered form.

Of the many articles adapted for dietetic use, it is extremely desirable, if not necessary, to have many of them in a dry and pulverized form so that they may be packed and handled conveniently and under conditions which with the ingredients in their usual state would render such handling impossible or at least not commercially possible. This is true of many lines generally but particularly true in the instance of such .a material as a doughnut preparation which for the purposes of illustration I shall particularly. discuss in my present application.

In producing such an article of food as adoughnut it is of great importance for successful culinary to have the ingredients properly and scientifically mixed and is of course of great convenience to have them ready prepared and in a form which may be readily used even by one who is comparatively unskilled or inexperienced in the production of that particular product. In such a product as the doughnut or cruller it is particularly important that the ingredients be properly combined and especially that they be so mechanically blended as to produce a satisfactory article.

The introduction of the shortening element in such a production is a matter of mechanical difiiculty requiring skilful manipulation, and the shortened product has by reason of its very nature been some-.

thing which has been considered to be incapable of commercial distribution. The greasy or oily nature of lard, butter -or other shortening elements has prevented the preparation of ready shortened products especially in dry or pulverized form.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 7, 1914.' Serial No. 830,282.

Patented J an. 4, 1916.

It is the object of my present invention to provide a ready prepared and shortened product capable of being reduced to a state ready for cookery by merely mixing with water.

As stated above, my present invention will be discussed with particular reference to a doughnut or cruller preparation although of course it would be understood that it may equally as well apply to other articles in which shortening is a necessary element.

I have already suggested that one of the great difiiculties has been the handling of a greasy or oily shortening in combination with other elements and of suitably mixing the shortening through the product to secure a uniform distribution. In the practice of my invention I secure both of these desired results so that the product is not only capable of commercial production and handling but is superior in the matter of its blending or assemblage over the usual hand methods of mixing in which the free shortening is introduced during the process of building up the mixture.

In preparing a commercial doughnut mixture in a dry or pulverized form, I practise my invention in substantially the following manner. Flour of the desired nature is first sterilized and, mixed with the amount (according to the richness desired) of egg in powdered form .and for this purpose any of the egg products may be used but preferably the dry desiccated eggs now on the market I also use the desired amount (which is proportioned to the dry mixture before mentioned) of milk in powdered form and produced inany of thewell known manners now practised. In adding the shortening element, I find that by taking about two and one-fourth pounds of lard to about twenty-five pounds of powdered sugar and beating the lard into the sugar I am able to produce a shortening mixture in a perfectly dry and pulverized form.

It is difficult to state with absolute accuracy the exact microscopic transformation which takes place during the process. There appears to be a mechanical separation of the predominance, might. be sai surrounded with the dry, powdered sugar, or even penetrated by the sugar. There also ap ears upon a microscopic examination to e a state of physical union, which is somewhat similar to this, but in which the particles of sugar, being sli htly more in to have the lard on its surface as a coating, or filled to a certain degree by penetration. Furthermore, viewed microscopically, certain minute particles of sugar, which might or might not, according to the degree of perfection of the mixture,-have a filnr or coating, or the impregnation last mentioned, might be so associated as to have a considerable percentage of void between their noncontacting portions, and there may be minute particles of lard within such voids. This forms amass leaving the lard distributed in a finely divided state and held in such state by the powdered sugar.

In this state the lardmay be mixed with the other dry elements of the product. by a mere mechanical mixing which can be done very completely and uniformly with the resultant product uniformly shortened and and the dough thus formed has then only to be rolled out, out and fried in the usual manner. It is impossible to describe all of the articles to which my invention may apply. In each case the ingredients are introduced in their proper proportions and the shortening introduced in the manner hereinbefore described The order of assembling the elements and the variations of the elements to produce different articles of cookery may all be'varied without departmemae ing from the spirit of my invention if within the terms of the appended claims. 7 What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. As an article ofymanufacture, a dry mixture consisting of a cereal, leaven and seasoning, including a dry shortening element consisting of comminuted fatty matter in an intimate mixture with an amount of dry, soluble, edible matter sufficient to eliminate the greasy characteristic in the mixture.

2. The method of producing a doughnut mixture consisting in mechanically manipulating anoily or fatty shortening matter with an amount of powdered sugar Sufi-v cient to reduce it to minute particles isolated in said powdered sugar, and in dry mixing the elements so -produced with suit able proportions of flour, leaven and shortening to produce a dry pulverized product.

3. As'an article of manufacture, a dry mixture consisting of a cereal including a dry shortening element'consisting of comminuted fatty matter in an intimate mixture with an amount of dry, soluble, edible matter sufiicient to eliminate the greasy characteristic in the mixture.

4. The method of producing a product of the class described, consisting in mechanically manipulating an oily or fatty shortening matter with an amount of edible matter in finely pulverized form to reduce it to minute particles, isolated in said pulverized matter, and in dry mixing the elements so produced with suitable proportions of other food elements to produce a pulverized product.

5. A method of producinga shortening element consisting in mechanically manipulating an oily or fatty shortening with an amount of dry, soluble, edible matter to reduce it to minute particles in intimate relation with the soluble matter.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses. THOMAS FRANCIS TIERNEY. Witnesses:

MARION G. Hones, VIoroRIA Lownmv, 

